A Floating Island is a mass of Forest land found in the sky, well above the usual land surface. Each Floating Island has a Gold, Silver, or Copper Brick structure with a locked Gold Chest inside that contains at least 1 item that can only be found on Floating Islands. Various Ores are also usually found within the land mass. The altitude and lateral position of Floating Islands usually makes them susceptible to Harpy spawns.
Most Worlds contain at least 2 or 3 Floating Islands. There are various methods for locating them.
Floating Island generation
Floating islands are randomly placed in the upper sixth of the map and cannot be placed within the 80 tiles on either side of the center of the map. The maximum number of floating islands is dependent on the map size. There will always be at least one floating island on a map. Because the algorithm attempts to place floating islands roughly in the top sixth of the map, map size changes the altitude range of floating islands.
| Map size | Maximum islands |
|---|
| Small | 3 |
| Medium | 5 |
| Large | 6 |
Finding Floating Islands
The easiest method of finding floating islands is to use a map viewer. This is considered cheating by many players, because youll have to access save files outside of the game itself. This tactic will not work for multiplayer maps where the player does not have access to the save file.
Hunting
A quick way to find them easily is to fire a Meteor Shot, or Water Bolt up into the air. If it bounces back a few seconds later, it's almost certain that a Floating Island is above you (note the angle that you fire up at).Alternatively, a Musket can be used. if you fire directly above you and there is a floating island, the sound of cutting vines will play and you will know that there is a floating island.
Another way to actively detect Floating Islands is to fire a Space Gun into the air, because it gives an acoustic signal when hitting a block. (Note: Only works if you are max. 200 ft. below the Island). If you have enough fallen stars left, you can fire them from a Star Cannon into the air and wait until you hear it cut the vines.
Another, more thorough way, which is more effort-intensive and is recommended for two players, is to build a skybridge near the top of the world. Player One will take several stacks of sand (or another physics-enabled block) and place them on the underside of the skybridge. Player Two will follow along at ground level to verify that all sand blocks reach the ground. The only way that a sand block will not fall from the skybridge to the ground is if it is blocked by a Floating Island.
You can also use gravitation potions to search for them, but it is recommended that you have at least 4 with you on large maps.
If you are a beginner, you can find floating islands by just walking left or right from your spawn point. If you find a really tall tree standing by itself, there could be a floating island above it.
Searching
If nothing else helps, you can use a Depth Meter to find the floating islands. They can usually be found at these heights:
- Small map - 100-475 ft. (430-475 ft is your best bet, but some have been known to spawn in the high 500's and low 300's 350-375)
- Medium map - 500-700ft (650ft is your best bet).
- Large map - 500-1000ft. (You may be able to see a floating island at 450)
Then dig lots of blocks and go to one side of the map, making a bridge to the middle amount of height suggested above. After that, head towards the other side.
99% percent of the time a floating island will naturally spawn above the dungeon of a world.
If you have access to gravitation potions, you can search for the floating islands without building a bridge. Simply fly across the map at the appropriate height, alternating gravity to stay at the same level. Hermes Boots and feather fall potions make this go smoother.
Many players report that many floating islands were found above strange flying dirt formations near the ground, often near surface clay. It is not yet known if this is just a rumor, particularly because many floating islands are just found above mountains or plain terrain.
If you see a strange dirt formation and/or surface clay, it might be good to look for floating islands near it anyway. And if you find gold on the surface, there is a strong chance there might be a floating island right above the gold.
Also, if you find silver on surface level, there is a very high chance of a floating Island of being there. Keep in mind, it can be ANY amount of natural silver. (Larger amounts of silver tend not to have an island.)
Loot
Loot research going on in Floating Islands/Drop research
Chests on a Floating Island may contain a variety of items, including 3 unique items exclusively found there:
Each chest has exactly one of these items. The generator guarantees that for the first 3 floating islands, each will have a different unique item (the map is generated from left to right). After that, the item is chosen at random. The type of wall and brick (copper, silver, gold) is completely random and has no relation with the loot found inside the chest or the quality of the island's ore, despite rumors to the contrary.
Enemies
Notes
- It is usually difficult to get to Floating Islands at a high altitude because of Harpies.
- It may occur to some players to dismantle the houses and sell them, but don't bother - despite being made of gold and silver, the bricks are worthless.
- Floating islands contain a noticeably higher amount of precious ores than the surface.
- Floating island chests are locked; players need a Golden Key from the Dungeon to unlock them.
- Sometimes a Floating Island can be right beside another one, with no blocks separating them.
Anomaly: The wall and brick materials are randomized separately, and in turn will only match 1/3 of the time. The
Dungeon also does this.
Bug: Sometimes a house will be jutting out of the side of a floating island, causing it to look like someone has mined half of the island.
History